Local cardiologist Mitch Mutter had to act quickly to move patients and equipment from the ground floor of a Haitian hospital as water from Hurricane Tomas rose.
By Friday morning the building had more than 3 inches of rainwater running through, Mutter told local members of the Children's Nutrition Program. Mutter founded the nonprofit that works in Leogane, a town near the epicenter of the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left more than 1 million homeless.
As of late Friday, Haitian authorities had reported three deaths as a result of the storm.
Tomas' 80 mph winds ripped through parts of Haiti, triggering floods and threatening to worsen the cholera outbreak reported several weeks ago.
So far, more than 300 people have died and close to 5,000 have been hospitalized because of cholera in three of the country's 10 departments, the U.N. reported.
"Cholera is spread mainly through contaminated water, so more water poses more risks. The poor sanitary conditions in many parts of the country combined with flooding and polluted waters are very likely to accelerate the infection rate," Nigel Fisher, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Haiti, said in a news release.
Water was 3 feet deep in parts of downtown Leogane, about 18 miles from Port-au-Prince, a Children's Nutrition Program staff member wrote from Haiti.
"The main roads downtown look like rivers, and the currents in some areas are extremely strong," Brittanny Eddy wrote in an e-mail.
"Luckily, we have not gotten much wind, so many of the tarps and tents are still intact," she said.
In Chattanooga, Haiti native Georges Charles feels helpless as he reads the news and sees the pictures.
"It's very sad to be reading about this," he said. "The pictures are heartbreaking.
"The country was already devastated by the earthquake, then cholera, now [the storm] -- they can't take that," he said.
His brother had been living in a tent in Port-au-Prince, he said. Charles said he was able to talk to his bother Friday and he was safe in a shelter. Charles said his brother wasn't sick with cholera but a couple of his friends were.
"When I was [in Haiti,] there was a lot of hope," he said. "Now I see this and I think, 'Oh boy, I wish I could have taken them with me.'"
trying to help
The Children's Nutrition Program just two months ago refocused from emergency mode after the earthquake to its core work with childhood malnutrition. Then came the cholera outbreak and the storm, stretching the program to its limit.
Cholera is a bacterial infection whose symptoms include vomiting and diarrhea. Victims can become severely dehydrated and die if not quickly treated.
The epidemic is believed to have begun in the Artibonite department, about 45 miles north of Port-au-Prince, but it could spread to other areas.
Many people in Leogane live in tents because 90 percent of the buildings were destroyed or deemed inhabitable.
If cholera hits Leogane, "it's going to spread like wildfire," said Kerry Kelly, executive director of the Children's Nutrition Program.
In Petite Riviere de Nippes, members of the local American Haitian Foundation are also focusing on cholera prevention. And since Wednesday, they have prepared for the storm by boarding up glass windows, securing things and getting to higher ground, said board member Betty Miles.
The Children's Nutrition Program and American Haitian Foundation are among dozens of aid organizations that have been working in Haiti.
"This year has been a year of the international community trying to set infrastructure with the Haitian government," said Kelly, who has worked in Haiti off and on since 1989.
"2011 I hope will be a year where we actually see things get done like improvements in providing housing for these people, getting them back to where they were living before but in a real structure, improving education or the health care system. These are all things that should have been done decades ago," she added.
And 10 months after the earthquake, the greatest needs continue to be shelter and jobs, Kelly said.
"Haitian people are ... stronger than any other people I've met," said Kelly.
"They will get through all of this, but there's really so much you can ask a people, a country, to survive over and over again."